I saw on television the other day the Russian ambassador to the United Kingdom being interviewed concerning alleged Russian war crimes in Ukraine. I was treated to a classic example of "a priori" reasoning from the ambassador: that is, deduction from first principles rather than from observed data. His fundamental premiss was that "Russian soldiers do not bomb civilians, nor do they loot, rape or murder; and it therefore follows that they have not committed such crimes in Ukraine, and that any evidence to the contrary must necessarily be fake." The logic of this argument is impeccable, but it depends for its validity entirely on the truth of the premiss. The interviewer, by contrast, challenged the ambassador by citing evidence, some of which, he said, he had seen himself; and from this he put forward an inductive argument that war crimes had probably been committed. Not surprisingly, there was no meeting of minds.
Sunday 12 June 2022
Friday 3 June 2022
Cricket: Bradman's last great innings.
Don Bradman's 1948 touring team swept all before them, winning the first two test matches comfortably, with the third match drawn after interruptions by rain. In the fourth test, played at Headingley, Leeds, between 22nd and 27th of July, the England captain, Norman Yardley, had to attempt to force a win to stand a chance of squaring the series.
The weather was fine throughout, and the pitch excellent for batting. The first three innings produced a high-scoring game; the scorecard at the start of the final day being as follows:-
England (first innings): 496 (Washbrook 143, Edrich 111)
Australia (first innings): 458 (Harvey 112, Loxton 93)
England (second innings): 365 for 8
Yardley then declared the England innings closed, setting Australia to score 404 in a day's play, and hoping that his bowlers could extract some help from a worn pitch. The Australians would have had every incentive to bat defensively, but instead they decided to go for the runs!
Jim Laker's off-spin, which was to prove lethal to Australian batsmen on later occasions, was ineffective, and the main threat appeared to come from Denis Compton bowling chinamen (left-arm, back-of-the-hand spinners). He took the first wicket to fall, bringing in Bradman to join Arthur Morris, the left-handed opening batsman. The two of them then decided to hit Compton out of the attack: several chances went down, and Compton was taken off, finishing the match with 1 for 82 off 15 overs. Yardley tried no fewer than seven bowlers, even including a few overs from Len Hutton. It was later suggested that if Yardley had held his nerve and England held their catches, Compton might have finished with figures in the region of 6 for 180 and England would have won. As it was, Bradman and Morris added 301 for the second wicket, including 171 between lunch and tea. With victory imminent, Bradman deliberately batted out an over so that the young Neil Harvey, playing in his first test, should have the honour of hitting the winning run.
The final scorecard read:-
Morris c. Pollard b. Yardley 182
Hassett c. & b. Compton 17
Bradman not out 173
Miller lbw b. Cranston 12
Harvey not out 4
Extras 16
Total (for 3) 404
Nothing like this could happen today, for a simple reason. When we examine the bowling figures, we discover that England contrived to bowl no fewer than 114 overs in less than a day's play! This shows that even when it must have been clear that England had no chance of winning the match, Yardley had made no attempt to thwart an Australian triumph by simply wasting time. The Australians were thus able to progress to victory without undue haste, scoring fewer than four runs an over.
The England bowlers must have bowled 20 overs an hour throughout the day. Why the do test teams nowadays struggle to bowl even 13 or 14 overs in an hour? That question remains unanswered, and it is clear that spectators in the past had far more activity to watch in a day's cricket.
Bradman's innings meant that his test match batting average now stood at over 100. But in the final test at the Oval, he was bowled second ball by Eric Hollies for a duck, thereby reducing his average to 99.94! Even so, this figure is unlikely ever to be surpassed: Bradman's record as the most productive batsman in the history of cricket looks secure.
